Eiffel Tower

We've had a wonderful time in Paris so far! I can't believe we've already been here for 1 month. The children aren't in public school yet, as the schools were closed for 2 weeks due to a winter holiday. We've filled out all of the paper work and hopefully this week, we'll hear when and where they can start school. Here are some pictures from our trip to the Eiffel Tower that we took a few weeks ago. More pictures to follow!

We moved to France!

Hi everyone. Sorry for the long hiatus from blogging. We just moved to France. We are currently living in a suburb of Paris. It's all so very exciting. We had so much to do in the USA before moving, like selling everything we owned including our cars and furniture. Now, on this side, we are doing things like opening a French bank account and buying new furniture. Things which are quick in the USA take much longer here and vice versa as well. As soon as we move into our permanent housing all 3 of our kids will start school here. Hopefully getting them into school won't be too difficult.

I'll try to post some activities we've been doing in order to get them up to speed in their French so they don't feel too overwhelmed when they start school.

Worksheets to Help Teach Numbers to Preschoolers

I found a good site with some worksheets to teach numbers in English, but you can still use the site, print out the worksheets and teach your children the numbers in French. It's appropriate for preschoolers. It's been helpful for my 3 year old.

http://www.kidslearningstation.com/preschool/practice-counting.asp

I'm trying to look for some more age appropriate worksheets for my 7 year old and 5 year old. If anyone knows of any, let me know!

Spanish for Little Learners

In the past I combined some French and Spanish posts on this site. I've decided to start a blog for teaching children Spanish. This way people who visit this blog and that blog will only see articles that interest them (either teaching their children Spanish or French).

The blog address for my new Spanish for Little Learners site is: http://spanishforlittlelearners.blogspot.com/

Guess Who????

I have to admit that I've had the best time playing Guess Who Extra in French with my kids. For those of you who haven't played it yet. It's like classic Guess Who but with lots of cards that you can change. So you can guess which house hold item, which animal, which kid, which monster, etc. There are so many different things you can practice in French. The monster card is good for practicing colors and body parts.

The best reason I like playing games while teaching French to my kids is because the kids don't know that you are actually teaching them. :) They end up forgetting that they are learning and just have fun.

More Color Worksheets - French and Spanish

Here are some simple worksheets for your children to practice their colors in French or Spanish. If they can't read yet, you can read the colors to them and they can color the word the correct color.

To extend this exercise, you can make a little color book. They can cut out each word and paste it to a page. Then they can cut a picture from a magazine that is that color or they can draw a picture and color it that color. There are many different ways you can expand this activity. Enjoy!

Red light, Green light

Do you remember the old game Red light, Green light? You know the one where 1 person turns their back and says green light to the other people. Then, those people run as fast as they can to try to touch the person who is calling out the light colors. Then, when the person turns around and says red light, all of the people have to freeze. If you are caught running, then you have to be sent back to the starting line.

Now that you remember the game, have you ever thought about changing it to a French/Spanish game and playing with your kids? We did that this afternoon and the kids had fun. We even added colors like yellow for slowing down and black for dropping to the ground. We just tried to change it up a bit. Try it with your kids. I'm sure you'll have fun! It's a great fun way to learn a new language.

French Colors:

purple - violet

blue - bleu

green - vert

yellow - jaune

orange - orange

red - rouge

black - noir

Spanish Colors:

purple - morado

blue - azul

green - verde

yellow - amarillo

orange - anaranjado

red - rojo

black - negro